New Survey Shows Lying, Cheating, Stealing on Rise

A new survey out by the Josephson Institute reveals what it describes as "entrenched habits of dishonesty in today's young people."

The survey of 29,000 high school students shows rates of kids stealing, lying and cheating on the rise in America.

Examples:

Stealing - more than one in three boys (35%) and one-fourth of girls (26%) - a total of 30% overall - admitted "stealing from a store within the past year."

They're also admitting to stealing from friends and family members.

And it's not just the "bad kids" who are doing the stealing. Honor students, student leaders and students involved in youth activities also admitted to ripping off others. These kids were less likely to steal, but still one in five admitted to stealing.

Lying - more than two out of five (42%) said they sometimes lie to save money.

More eight in ten students (83%) from public schools and religious private schools confessed they "lied to a parent about something significant."

Students - according to the survey - who attended non-religious independent schools were somewhat less likely to lie to a parent (78%).

Cheating - Cheating is on the rise in school. A majority (64%) "cheated on a test" during the past year.

Students attending non-religious schools reported the lowest cheating rate (47%) while 63 % of students from religious schools admitted they cheated.

Among the findings, despite the admitted high levels of dishonesty among the kids who answered the survey, they still had a high self-image of themselves regarding ethics.

93% said they were "satisfied with their personal ethics and character" and 77% said that "when it comes to doing the right thing, I am better than most people I know."

Should we be worried about these results? I think we should.

If you'd like to see the entire survey go here:
https://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard.